Earlier this year, Smugmug acquired Flickr. As a customer/member of both services, I feel pretty good about the pairing. However, I think we all expected that some things had to change for Flickr to be viable going forward. Earlier this month, Flickr announced it was drastically reducing the amount of storage available for free users, dropping free storage from 1TB down to 1000 photos.

This move has been met with mixed emotions, although a large number of comments I’ve sampled seem very upset at the notion of deleting photos already on the service to get under the 1000 photos cap. I’m still optimistic about Flickr’s potential in the hands of Smugmug. I’ve been on both services since 2006.

Smugmug had a plan of what it wanted Flickr to be as both a community and a revenue source before the deal was made. A private company like Smugmug isn’t acquiring a community like Flickr without vision. Part of that vision has to be monetization. To that end, Smugmug recently posted a San Francisco-based job for Product Manager Monetization and Partnerships at Flickr.

A key part of the revenue source at Flickr is the professional account membership fees for $50/year; however, this job posting makes clear that Smugmug has bigger goals in mind with growing and monetizing the 75 million member base. One of the key goals in the job description is to “set and achieve ambitious revenue targets.”

If this were another holding company in which Flickr was just part of its overall portfolio, goals like this might worry me. However, I have enough respect for where Smugmug has been and grown to actually be more excited about the potential of Flickr’s growth. If Flickr is going to survive, it has to be both relevant to photographers and viable as a commercial product. I hope most photographers appreciate the balance of privacy and revenue. Companies like Yahoo or Facebook/Instagram are willing to shell out massive,”free” resources in exchange for data mining our online interactions with advertisers and others. Smugmug (again I hope) is building a product by photographers for photographers.

I expect 2019 to bring lots of change to Flickr with value to the members in mind. We could see some pushback on some features but I don’t think Flickr will stagnate in the coming years as Smugmug finds its footing at the helm.

The full job posting is as pasted below. And if you’re the guy or gal to monetize Flickr for the benefit of all, you can apply here.

Product Manager Monetization and Partnerships, Flickr

San Francisco, CA

Flickr is looking for a scrappy product manager to lead our monetization and partnership efforts. You’ll learn what makes our community tick so you can enhance our Pro subscription offering and find new ways to drive revenue while preserving and nurturing the vibrant interactions that make Flickr special. As a PM, you’ll lead a pod of web, mobile, and back-end engineers and partner with marketing, community, design, and other teams to deliver delightful user experiences and outstanding business results.

You Will:

Identify, evaluate, prioritize, and execute revenue-generating initiatives
Set and achieve ambitious revenue targets
Translate data and strategic product goals into spec-level plans for engineering execution
Make actionable, iterative decisions to deliver value as soon as it’s useful to the user
Establish and track key performance indicators to continuously optimize products
Lead a cross-functional product team, including engineering, design, QA, and project management
Partner closely with marketing and business development to deliver an outstanding and consistent experience to Flickr members
Work with other critical functional departments like data, research, and marketing to successfully bring your products to market
Establish and maintain productive working relationships with external partners
Meet customer expectations and deliver on team metrics and company goals
Stay up to speed on market trends, competitive landscape, and the overall state of the industry; together with your team, imagine the future and take us there

You Have:

Experience and skill with financial modeling and analytical process improvement
Worked with external partners and effectively formed collaborative partnerships
An enjoyment for brainstorming opportunities and have experience prioritizing those with the biggest impacts
The ability to break a complex problem into manageable pieces
An ability to comfortably communicate with stakeholders at every level of the business
A respect for history and tradition but are willing to challenge long-held beliefs
Familiarity with agile product development and enjoy testing your assumptions

Nice to Have:

5–8 years of product management experience or comparable
Background in managing subscription business
Passion for photography

Does this sound like your dream job? Send us a sample of some of your best work that delivered great business results!

We are committed to building a team that is as incredibly diverse and unique as our customers around the world. We welcome all backgrounds, skills, perspectives, and experiences. We deeply believe that a diverse team and an inclusive workplace make us stronger and enable us to serve our customers better.